Following redistricting from last year, there will be a handful of key primaries that will determine the direction of the Iowa House Republican caucus. The House has been the chamber more often than not where conservative legislation has failed to advance.
Republican Rep. Lee Hein has been one of the biggest opponents of pro-life legislation in the Iowa House. Hein is in a re-election matchup against conservative Republican State Rep. Steve Bradley.
The two are likely to compete for District 66.
There are big differences between the candidates, but perhaps none bigger than where the two stand on the value and importance of innocent unborn life.
Bradley is a champion for the unborn. Lee Hein, meanwhile, has voted against the Heartbeat Bill, voted against the Protect Life Amendment and was one of a few Republican House members who blocked the Protect Life Amendment from having the necessary votes to pass a couple of years ago.
But, what is Hein telling voters on the campaign trail?
“I firmly believe that life begins at conception, but I also believe that it’s a moral, religious, but most of all, it is a family decision,” Hein said. “I just felt that the Heartbeat Bill as it was written, went too far.”
Hein was pressed and said he has an amount of emails saved from people who were in the same position he was and thanked him for his vote.
“I can show you a bunch of them that are very adamant in the fact that they believe the same thing I do, that life begins at conception but there are certain instances with medical technology that just, we have to take a look at it,” Hein said.
Hein told another group of individuals it is a “family decision.” He hasn’t volunteered much information about his vote against the Protect Life Amendment, however.
Hein isn’t saying anything that we don’t hear from “pro-life Democrats.” In fact, for the most part, he is repeating their talking points.
While the Republican Party of Iowa Platform makes clear where the GOP stands on abortion — or at least is supposed to — Hein rejects it.
Here is a reminder on the platform:
The preamble notes the “respect for the sanctity of human life.” Life is listed as the top legislative priority. And the priority calls for protection beginning at conception without exceptions.
“We believe that all human beings, from conception to natural death, have a God-given and constitutionally protected right to life, which cannot be infringed we believe all such issues belong under the constitutional authority of the state, not federal government,” the platform states.
While Hein attempts to explain his pro-abortion stance on the Heartbeat Bill as the bill going “too far,” he doesn’t offer any sensical explanation for his pro-abortion efforts on the Protect Life Amendment — having voted against it in 2021 and being one of the no’s to block it from coming up for a vote in 2020.
Keep in mind the Protect Life Amendment really does little to stop abortion in Iowa, it only states there is no right to an abortion or the taxpayer funding of it in the Iowa Constitution.
And, even if the language of the amendment may make anti-life moderate Republicans like Hein uncomfortable, it will come down to a vote of Iowans — not the legislature — so long as the legislature allows Iowans the opportunity to vote. Hein does not want Iowans to have a say in abortion based on his vote against the Protect Life Amendment.
Look at what Hein has said… he believes life begins at conception. There should be a period there. He, in his own words, believes life begins at conception. But then he goes on to justify ending life after conception.
There’s a word for that — starts with an ‘m,’ rhymes with urder.
It is one thing to simply be deceived and simply ignore the science on when life begins and claim not to know and attempt to justify killing unborn babies that way.
But Hein admits he believes life begins at conception — he just doesn’t think it should be protected until, I guess, 20 weeks into pregnancy. And he doesn’t want voters to decide whether the Iowa Constitution provides a right to an abortion as well as taxpayer funding of abortion (this kind of goes against him touting his vote against using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion, by the way).
The fact that Hein has continued to be chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the Iowa House should be concerning to pro-life Iowans who would expect better of Speaker Pat Grassley in his selection of chairs.
This is a big issue. It’s huge. It’s literally life or death. Hein has sided against life far more often than not recently. He has sided with Planned Parenthood and against the Republican Party of Iowa Platform.
Bradley has experiencing knocking off pro-abortion Republicans. A couple of years ago he unseated Republican-turned-Democrat Rep. Andy McKean. If the voters of Iowa House District 66 prioritize the Life issue, Bradley will do it again in 2022.
